Weekend Movie Preview: November 30, 2012

The weekend movie preview this time out has a rather dark feel to it. With the mob-centered Brad Pitt crime drama Killing Them Softly, the fright-fest that is The Collection and the return of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren warring in Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning all arriving -- it's dreary out there, folks.

Killing Them Softly: Pitt kills it as a mob enforcer sent to a town when a poker game that gangsters control is robbed. The cast is top notch, including Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins, and the movie is a pure thriller. The social commentary about the 2008 fiscal collapse is also a nice touch, as we state in our Killing Them Softly review.

Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning: Van Damme and Lundgren may be returning to the Universal Soldier franchise they began 20 years ago, but this latest film is truly the Scott Adkins show. The budding action hero puts the hurt on both men and although the story is muddled, the action sequences are crisp and at least compelling. For more, check out our Universal Soldier: A Day of Reckoning review.

The Collection: The horror world needs a shot in the arm, and unfortunately The Collection is not quite it. It is a scary ride, don't get us wrong, but there is not much to it other than some Saw-like horrors. As we say in our The Collection review, the cast rises to the occasion, but the movie overall misses its mark.